Pilot Archive

first off, this is NEVER going to happen, its just something to dream about.

to me the ultimate game would be a cross between a turnbased wargame, x-wing alliance, and EVE online.

the scope of the game would be HUGE, with dozens or even hundreds of star systems, and each star system would be to scale, with millions of miles of space to fly through.

travel between planets stations and other "points of interest" would happen on conventional propulsion at somewhere around .2 the speed of light. i guess this would be called something like supercruise. combat of course would happen at much slower speeds, but would still be very fast; if you watch ROTJ, the fighters in combat are moving very fast, but dont manuver anything like we can in JTL. there would have to be some way of forcing people out of cruise and preventing them from entering it so you cant just floor it and get out of dodge.

there would be three different "professions" you could advance in. one would be fighters, another would be small craft (yt1300 style) and the third would be starships. there would be no xp system where everyone advances by grinding, it would be rank based and would depend on how succesful you are. if you perform very well, you can advance and get command of larger ships, but if you get your starship blown up alot, you can get demoted too. there would be a limited number of positions for the larger starships (a percentage of the player base) to prevent everyone from just flying around in moncal cruisers and SSDs (an FRS like system, but better).

FIGHTERS:

i would make manuvering in single seat craft more like real life atmospheric fighters; most of your input would be pitch and roll. yaw would be very unresponsive, roll would be ultra fast (since you arent changing your ships direction, the ammount of work required to roll is nothing), and pitch would be a middle ground. i think this would make dogfights alot more interesting, and more tactical. the idea is to make the ships fly fast, but not turn on a dime.

you would start your career as a navy fighter pilot as a cadet in a basic mass produced fighter assigned to a squadron. as you gain skill (not "skills" like in swg, but your ability to play the game) and reputation, you advance to better fighters and can eventualy get command of your own squadron. at the top of the chain, you and your squadron are every bit as potent in combat as a high-rank starship captain would be. as a single pilot, your arent all that bada$$, but your flight of fighters under your command are (at this point you would need to be a great leader and expert tactican to be succesful, not just a skilled fighter jock). npc fighter pilots wold not be something to laugh at, towards the top of the chain a player would have a tough time being as good as the ai pilots. you could also choose to advance in a unit instead of leading your own if you prefer to be a hotshot.

SMALL CRAFT:

i see the light transports/gunboats as more of a special forces role. you are fast, sneaky, and have lots of electronic warfare stuff. your turrets tear fighters apart, but you are a pissant to a starship; turbolasers dont have much trouble tracking something your size and will rock your world if you try to slug it out with larger ships. advancement in this line is done with upgrades to your ship.

STARSHIPS:

starship control would be alot like EVE online, where you click in the direction you want to go, and the ship sets a new course. you would lock up targets and set the weapon systems you want to engage them with. there would also be more in-depth stuff as you advance, like controlling the routing of power and giving orders to damage control parties. the workload on bigger starships would be huge, and players could team up to man the same ship making operation alot more efficent.

the staship line of advancement would require you to have some experiance elsewhere first. when you "unlock" it and chose to pursue it, you would be made XO (not captain yet) of a small(Ish) starship (like a vette or lancer). you would have control of the ship for the most part, but you would be following orders as far as where to go, and what targets to engage. as you advance you are eventualy given your own command and can work your way up to bigger and badder ships. when you first get a command, you are assigned to a task group, and report to the fleets leader. depending on whats going on you could be sent out alone on a mission or be part of a big battle. as you go higher and higher in rank, you would start getting other ships under your own group, and could send them on missions that are of interest and form a fleet for a battle. at this level in the game, losing your ship or worse yet, your fleet, would have consequences. imperial command doesnt like it when you mess up and your SSD goes boom. you would likely get demoted and be given a less powerful ship to command.

THE WAR:

the war itself would be extremely dynamic. at the top of the chain of command players could participate in a sort of turn based stratagy game. the system would be able to run itself, giving orders to attack, defend, ect, but players with their own command would be able to setup assigments for their forces.

when 2 task groups clash on the front line, there would be many sorties that could be flown for recon, knocking out supply convoys, defending your convoys, and attacking enemy forces; and then if both sides decide to hold thier ground there would be a grand battle betwen fleets to decide control of the system.

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Starsider:
Harotak, Imperial Ace, pilot of the RGI "No Quarter" and the "ISS Enforcer"
Katorah, Corsec Security forces, Captian of "The Unrelenting
Harotak', Rebel Terrorist